


Keep Moving

by NerdofSpades



Series: Open Doors [20]
Category: Assassination Classroom, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Including ratings and warnings, Katsuki Bakugou goes to therapy, Panic Attacks, Quirk Discrimination (My Hero Academia), Quirkless Midoriya Izuku, Tags May Change, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:15:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24406423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdofSpades/pseuds/NerdofSpades
Summary: Izuku made it through his third year at Aldera. He graduated, both from his middle school and from the Assassination Classroom. Now, he has new problems to deal with. New classmates, new teachers, and a whole new type of weird that comes with studying at Japan's top hero school while also trying to hide state secrets.
Relationships: Class 3-E (Assassination Classroom) & Midoriya Izuku
Series: Open Doors [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1350022
Comments: 250
Kudos: 1091





	1. Preperations

**Author's Note:**

> I live! Fingers crossed that I don't need to go on hiatus again for a while.
> 
> To those who have been following this for a while, thank you so much for your patience. To those that are just now finding this, welcome! You'll probably want to check out the previous fics in this series first. You can certainly try to read this without that context, but you'll probably be confused eventually.
> 
> Now, I have to give a big thank you to Auguste the Clown on FFN and to several of my IRL friends for helping me make some underground hero OCs (who are referenced for the first time in Communication). Those characters are the reason I went on hiatus and without help, I probably wouldn't be able to post right now.
> 
> Last detail: life is a bit of a mess right now, so I'm not going to commit to a specific update schedule just yet.

“That should be all for 1-B,” Nedzu-san said. “Kan-kun?”

“Yeah, that’s all I’ve got for you,” Kan answered. “Should be a pretty standard year.”

The rodent nodded and turned to face the other side of the meeting room. “Alright then, Aizawa-kun?”

Shouta grunted and ignored his papers. It was a routine meeting they’d had every year. Not to mention classes would be starting soon. If he didn’t know which student was which by now… “For the most part, as Kan said, it’ll be a normal year. 1-A’s recommendation students are Todoroki Shouto and Yaoyorozu Momo. Both display quick thinking and versatile quirk use, though Todoroki-kun seems to be favoring his right side far too much, so keep an eye on that.” Shouta glanced at All Might, pleased to get a small nod in acknowledgement in return. “We also have Iida Tenya, legacy of the Idaten Hero Agency and younger brother of Ingenium. He, along with Yaoyorozu-kun and Todoroki-kun, shows the expected high levels of academic achievement that comes from extensive private education throughout his childhood.

“The other students are, for the most part, a mixed bag. They have their strengths and weaknesses academically. I will talk to you individually about which students will need extra attention in your class and which ones won’t. As far as emotional and physical strengths, we’ll just have to wait and see for now.

“Which brings us to the problems.” He really hated this whole mess. “Midoriya Izuku and Bakugou Katsuki. Both high achievers academically, and both from Aldera Junior High.”

"If they’re from Aldera, why not bring them up with the other private school kids earlier?” Nemuri asked.

“Because I have bigger concerns than academics for these two, and they’re both a part of Aldera’s agreement with the local families from when Asano-san first bought out the school. They haven’t had private tutoring and probably would have gone to a public school if not for that.”

Shouta actually consulted his papers for this part. He did not want to miss a detail or let the others forget that these two could be an issue. “Back to the point, at the end of last school year, Aldera was involved in a high priority event concerning the villain that destroyed the moon a year ago. In particular, Midoriya-kun’s class was held away from the rest of the school in the forest the villain was hiding in. The Ministry of Defense has released no statement as to whether or not the students had any contact with the villain and how the events may have affected the students.”

“Wait, what?” Hizashi spoke up. “That… how did I miss that?”

“You were out of town at the time, Yamada-kun,” Nedzu-san said, “and the Ministry of Defense and Asano-san went out of their way to keep the news quiet. They were required to make some kind of statement, but only released it to a small handful of stations. The news also got lost amid other stories of disaster in other areas, such as the assignment you had been on at the time.”

“Ouch,” Hizashi hissed. “That’s not good.”

“Indeed,” Nedzu-san agreed. “They have refused to release any further information to us, despite our students being affected and several of our teachers working to secure the area.”

Shouta nodded. He’d been one of those teachers, but even as he worked there, the only thing he’d managed to learn was that no one was allowed in the dome they called “Earth’s Shield” and only military personnel were allowed up on the mountain.

Everything involving that villain was a mess, really. The public knew a villain had blown up the moon, and that was about it. Heroes knew more, but it still wasn’t much. Some, like Nedzu, were called in for planning and analysis of the target’s skills and behaviors, while others, like All Might, were selected to try and overpower the villain. Only a select few were allowed to know anything at all, and even they got cut out after the first month. But that hadn’t stopped the underground hero networks from piecing together what kind of threat the villain posed to the world.

And finding the pictures of All Might and Edge Shot post villain make over, which had been gleefully passed around at several meetings.

Before Shouta could get back on track and continue the meeting, All Might spoke up. “That is a concern,” he said, “but I fear those two may have some history we should be worried about as well.”

That was news. “You know them?” Shouta asked.

"Uh, no,” All Might admitted. “But I have met Midoriya-shounen before. A couple of times, actually. The incident I’m worried about… I heard a commotion on Dagobah Beach. When I found the source, Midoriya-shounen had clearly been fighting an assailant with some kind of explosion quirk. He was badly injured, and the assailant ran off before I could get a good look. Midoriya-shounen was quick to defend his attacker, making it clear he knew them in the process. He refused to press charges, saying that his attacker was not in control of his own actions.”

“And you let this go?” Shouta said.

“Yes and no. I wound up asking a friend of mine in the police force to look some things up off the books. He’s the one that first directed my attention to Bakugou-shounen as the only person in the area that matched the description. Digging a little deeper came up with a reason Bakugou-shounen may not have been in his right mind. Asano-san’s quirk allows him to increase anger, direct it at a target, and lower inhibitions. At least, that’s what I managed to understand of it.”

“Okay, but was anything done about this?” Snipe said.

“Consider,” Nedzu-san said, “we have a student who likely does not know whether or not he’s had a quirk used on him, a student that should _not_ know about the quirk or its use, and a principal and teacher that will deny its use.”

All Might was nodding. “We also haven’t been able to find any kind of motive. All it is is hearsay, and Midoriya-shounen and his parents have not pressed any charges against Bakugou-shounen or the school.”

Hizashi nodded. “Your hands are tied.”

“Great,” Shouta grumbled, “an even bigger mess. We’ll have to keep an eye on them. Bakugou-kun did show some violent tendencies during the entrance exam, but he didn’t necessarily seem to be enjoying it. If he wasn’t in control of his actions, or even if he was, the event may have rattled something in him.”

“I have something for you, as well,” Maijima said. “Midoriya-kun’s costume…”

“Yes, Maijima?” Shouta pressed.

“Well… there’s a list of odd things there. The most important one is that you’ll have to delay some lesson plans. It should be in within a week of classes starting, but it won’t be here before their first lesson with you, All Might.”

“Er, noted.”

Great, now the oaf was going to have to rework his lesson plans. At least this might make him consider teaching actual basics of fighting first. “You said there were other problems?” Shouta asked.

“Well, not problems, per se, but oddities. When I first looked at it, I almost sent it back because it _should_ have been impossible to make, not to mention expensive. Way outside of the budget we allot for first years. Before I could actually send back the complaints, I got a message from one of our support companies saying it had been taken care of and they would handle the production of Midoriya-kun’s costume. When I tried to get more information, they stone walled me.”

The room was silent. “Well… that certainly is unusual,” Nedzu-san finally said, “but I believe it would be best for us to leave it alone for now. The costume is in production and everything is running smooth enough.”

“Nedzu-san,” Shouta said, “Midoriya-kun is the one that brought _Molotov cocktails_ to the exam. Pardon me for being a little concerned about what kinds of connections this kid might have.”

Hizashi grinned. “ _Oh!_ That kid!”

Nemuri snickered behind her hand. “At least you know who your problem child is going to be this year, Shouta.”

Nedzu-san chuckled to himself at the joke. “I understand your concern, but for now, just keep an eye on him as a student first and foremost. If you happen to see anything concerning, you can bring it up to me.”

A quiet chorus of “yes, sirs” came from around the table.

“Is there anything else?”

Silence and a few shaking heads.

Nedzu-san nodded. “Then the meeting is dismissed. Don’t forget to make sure everyone gets the necessary files and paperwork. All Might, fixing up your lesson plan is your top priority! We don’t want any surprises in our first weeks!”

“Hey, All Might,” Shouta called out as they left, pulling the older hero aside. “I was hoping you could help me with something.”

* * *

Izuku smiled and hummed as he checked himself in the mirror again. The grey, green, and red school uniform caused another happy jump in his heart. He could hardly believe it. He was going to UA. He was wearing UA’s uniform. He picked up the last piece, the red tie, and carefully tied it around his neck. It was almost certainly looser than it should have been, but Izuku didn’t want to tie it any tighter. At least he actually knew how to tie a tie now, thanks to his years at Aldera.

Izuku sighed and forced his smile to stay up, even as he felt the edges tremble. “This is it, Korosensei,” he said to the large stuffed yellow octopus he’d bought the second he saw it. “My first day at UA. You’d be so proud if you could see me now.” He laughed softly to himself. “Who am I kidding? You’d be proud no matter what happens. Well, I should get going. I still need to get the lay of the land and scout the territory and all that. Prepare for what’s to come.” he swallowed thickly. “I’ll be back after school.”

Izuku took another deep breath and stepped out of his room. Quickly running through the last of his morning routine, Izuku grabbed his bento and packed bag.

_Make lots of new friends at school today. And remember to actually pack your books! No All Might action figures! ;) Never forget how proud I am of you, Izuku._

_Love, Mom_

Izuku smiled as he pulled the taped note off the door and tucked it in his pocket. He was sure his mom would be telling him that herself if not for how early he was leaving. He had a lot of things to do before class started.

Leaving early, Izuku noted, also had the effect of fewer people noticing and caring that he was a UA student, which meant he got there just a little bit faster and didn’t actually have to talk to any well-wishers on the way. When he got to the school, he was quick to change his shoes and begin his first and only mission for the day.

Explore the school.

He had other things he wanted to do but knowing how to get around was going to be important. With how big the school was, Izuku would be lucky if he saw most of it before he needed to get to class.

Wandering around, Izuku managed to find a lot of interesting things. He found the main areas for all four courses and identified the classrooms for various years. Most of the science labs and other rooms of fancy equipment that didn’t belong to support were in the General Studies area. Most of the offices were near Management. Everything else was a bit scattered wherever they could put it. Heroics did have their own changing rooms, but other courses didn’t always have physical education to worry about either. Recovery Girl-sensei’s office was, of course, with the hero students, irresponsible injury magnets that they were. The library was also a place Izuku was very interested in finding, as it would help him with future before-school missions and was found among the General Studies classes.

Izuku, of course, saw a lot of very interesting people while he was wandering. Some of them waved at him, and he waved back. Some, particularly those in General Studies didn’t seem too happy to see a hero student, and Izuku just kept moving. In Management, several students tried to stop and talk with Izuku, but Izuku kept moving and politely waved them off.

Finally, when he had fifteen minutes left before class was due to start, Izuku began to quickly make his way through the building back to his classroom, one of the first places Izuku had found. The thickening crowd wasn’t doing Izuku any favors, but at least everyone had their place to be, so they didn’t want to spend the time to talk. “Hey, there, first year!” Or maybe not.

Izuku turned back towards the cheerful voice as he felt a firm hand grip his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“You lost? Need any help with finding your class?” the blond boy asked him.

“Uh, no thank you,” Izuku said. “I came in early and found it already. I was just on my way back there.”

“Alright then!” chirps the energetic girl with _very_ long pale blue hair. “Which class are you in? Oh, what’s your quirk? Are you excited for your first day? Wait. Aren’t you the kid with the Molotovs?”

Izuku stumbled back a step as the girl bombarded him with questions and leaned into his space. “Th-the kid with the M-molotovs!?” Izuku choked out, face burning.

“Yeah!” the blond boy said, still smiling calmly like his friend wasn’t interrogating a terrified underclassman. “The teachers were talking about you after the exams! They were a little shaken, I think. We even got to see some clips of the exam for an assignment.”

Wonderful. Just the first impression he had wanted to make.

“G-guys, just let him go,” a dark-haired boy Izuku had failed to notice behind the blond almost whispered. “We need to get to class, too.”

“Oh, right!” the girl said. “Well, I’ll see you later, kohai!” She waved one last time before bouncing off, dragging the quiet dark-haired boy with her.

“We really should be going,” the blond said. “My name is Togata Mirio. Just come find me if you ever need any help. Oh, and what’s your name?”

Izuku mentally slapped himself back into focus. “Ah, Midoriya Izuku! It’s nice to meet you Togata-senpai!”

“Right! I’ll see you around Midoriya-kohai!”

Izuku waved and quickly turned to leave. If he didn’t hurry, he was probably going to be late.

By the time Izuku neared his classroom, the hallways had emptied again, almost everyone was already in their classroom waiting for the first bell to ring. It wouldn’t do to be late on the first day.

Was that a yellow… a person in a yellow sleeping bag on the floor?

Izuku stood frozen outside the classroom door. How exactly was he supposed to react to this? Sure, he’d seen weirder, but that was supposed to be over! Wait, no. Reboot. Izuku straightened up and calmed himself. It was just a normal person in a yellow sleeping bag. Treat them as such.

“Well, that ruins that surprise.”

Izuku froze again. He knew that voice.

“Come on, let’s get inside and greet your classmates. Open the door for me, would you?”

Izuku nodded mutely and opened the door, stepping into his new classroom. At least this explained Aizawa-san’s-- _Aizawa-sensei’s_ comment about not disappointing him the last time they saw each other at the dojo.

An explosion and yelling drew Izuku’s attention to the side of the classroom where Bakugou and the boy with the engine quirk and glasses from the exam were antagonizing each other. “Bakugou! Leave the poor boy alone! And you-”

“I am Iida Tenya, of Somei Academy!” the boy, Iida-san, said as he marched towards Izuku with his hand out.

Izuku was going to respond when another voice grabbed his attention. “Hey! Molotov Cocktail Boy!” And the attention of everyone else in the room.

“M-molotov Cocktails!?” a kid with spiked up red hair and sharp teeth asked.

Izuku could feel everyone’s eyes on him as his face began to burn again. Aizawa-sensei had to be laughing at him right now.

“Everyone, settle down!” Aizawa-sensei finally said. Everyone fell silent in an instant and watched as he… inched his way into the classroom in a sleeping bag. Once inside the room, he, somehow, stood up in the bag and unzipped it from the upright position. “It took you all eight seconds to settle down. Unacceptable. Time is precious, something rational students would understand.”

Izuku felt his brain short circuit again for the third time since he got to class. A scruffy, tired man, hiding his face in his scarf. That was how his mom had described Eraserhead. Though, it was hard to imagine Aizawa-sensei blushing.

Aizawa-sensei cast a quick glance over the class. “I am Aizawa Shouta. I am your homeroom teacher. Welcome to UA’s Heroics Course.” Silence greeted him as the class processed his words. “Right, let’s get to it.” He picked up a gym uniform and tossed it to Izuku. “Put these on and meet me outside.”

Izuku was the first to move. Strange and unorthodox teaching was pretty much his life at this point, and he was more than just resigned to it. As he left, he heard a sudden commotion behind him. Likely the rest of his classmates getting their wits together and following the instructions.


	2. The First Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quirk Testing and New Friends

Izuku was glad he’d spent the time before school exploring. Now he knew exactly where the locker rooms were and how to get there. For some reason, most of his classmates didn’t seem to be following him. The only people walking with him were Iida-san, a boy with red and white hair split down the middle and a burn scar over his left eye, and the boy with the sharp teeth.

“So, Molotov cocktails?” the red head said, turning to walk backwards so he and Izuku could face each other. “You going to explain that?”

Izuku shrugged. “The rules say you can use legally obtained support gear that is necessary for your quirk, or you can bring anything you can make yourself using only supplies from a hardware store.”

“Ah, you had mentioned it was within the rules,” Iida-san said. “I assume that is what you are referring to?”

“Yeah,” Izuku said, pushing open the door to the locker room. They were the first to arrive. “We should change quickly. I don’t think Aizawa-sensei will appreciate it if we’re late.”

“Right!” Iida-san and the red head both said suddenly. Izuku largely ignored them in favor of changing himself and heading out to the field where Aizawa-sensei was waiting.

There was some mindless chatter when they got out onto the field. Aizawa-sensei largely ignored them, letting them do what they wanted while he waited for the last students to arrive. Izuku learned that the redhead was named Kirishima Eijirou and was a big fan of Crimson Riot, and that was the reason he dyed his hair. Iida-san was just generally a little stuck up, but still friendly enough. And the brown-haired girl from the exam was Uraraka Ochako with a gravity quirk. Even while talking with his new classmates, Izuku kept half an eye on Bakugou, shifting himself towards the back of the crowd, so he was as far from Bakugou as he could be without making it extra obvious. Or making it look like he was avoiding half the class.

When the last student arrived, a short boy with purple hair that seemed to form into balls, Aizawa-sensei started talking. Lucky for them, everyone had learned quickly from the classroom and stopped talking instantly. “Today we’ll be doing a quirk assessment test-”

“A quirk assessment test!?” at least half the class cried out. Really? Were they a hivemind or something?

“But what about orientation?” Uraraka-san said. “We’ll miss it!”

“If you really want to be in the big leagues, you can’t waste time on pointless ceremonies,” Aizawa-sensei said. It sounded almost… rehearsed. Izuku wondered idly how many times he’d had this conversation before. “Here at UA, we’re not tethered to tradition, which means I get to run my class however I want.” Huh, UA gets to do what they want because they’re the top and teaching unusual things. 3-E got to do what they wanted because they were at the bottom and no one was watching. This was going to be an interesting year.

A quick glance around confirmed that most of the class was starting to get a little afraid of Aizawa-sensei.

“You’ve been taking standardized tests all your lives,” Aizawa-sensei continued, taking out his phone, “but you’ve never been able to use your quirks in any physical exams before. The government’s still trying to pretend we’re all created equal by not letting those with the most power excel.”

Okay, that made some sense. You can’t get an idea for what the population is capable of if you make everyone hold back. On the other hand, that was about two steps away from some very uncomfortable statements about those that didn’t have a quirk to help them in the tests. But… Aizawa-sensei wouldn’t think that, would he?

“It’s not rational, one day the Ministry of Education will learn. Bakugou, you managed to get the most points on the entrance exam. What was your farthest distance on the softball throw in junior high school?”

Izuku could see where this was going.

“67 meters, I think.”

At least he knew there were some people here that would excel at this about as much as he would. The invisible girl in particular had about as much advantage as he did.

“Right,” Aizawa-sensei tossed the ball to Bakugou. “Now, try it with your quirk.”

Bakugou grunted and stepped into the circle. Izuku just sighed internally. Here we go again.

“Anything goes, just stay in the circle,” Aizawa-sensei said, just to make sure they were all clear. “Go on. Quite wasting time.”

Bakugou wound up. “Alright, old man, you asked for it.” He swung forward. “Die!” he yelled at the top of his lungs, just audible over the explosion that launched the ball even further forward. Murmurs rippled through the class. Izuku rolled his eyes at the theatrics.

“All of you need to know the full extent of your capabilities,” Aizawa-sensei said as the ball finally came down. “It’s the most rational way of determining your potential as pro heroes.”

No, it wasn’t. That was just their physical limits. Something they needed to know, yes, but it was hardly the be all, end all. Something Izuku knew Aizawa-sensei knew, so why was he saying this?

He showed them the screen, which read “705.2m.”

“705 meters,” a kid with bright blond hair said.

“Oh, I wanna go!” the pink girl said, practically squealing and dancing in her place. Izuku couldn’t help but smile at her excitement. “That looks like fun!”

“Aw, yeah! This is what I’m talking about!” said another kid with… those were some really big elbows. “We can use our quirks as much as we want!”

“Sounds like fun, huh?” Aizawa-sensei said. The class went dead silent and even Izuku couldn’t suppress a slight shiver at the malice and bloodlust that washed over them. “You have three years to become a hero. If you think it’s gonna be all games and play, you’re a bigger bunch of fools than I thought. Alright then. Let’s add a little weight to it. Today you are competing in nine physical events to gauge your potential. Eight of them are standard fitness tests. The last is a surprise round. Whoever comes in last over all the events will be expelled.”

What. No. They couldn’t- He couldn’t do this. He… no. Something was off.

“Like I said, I get to decide how this class is run. If you’ve got a problem with it, you can head home now.”

Aizawa-sensei had a quirk that wouldn’t help him in the first eight events at the very least. He wouldn’t be able to guarantee a pass even for himself. There had to be something more.

“Wait, you can’t do that!” Oh, bless your heart Uraraka-san for being the one to step up for this. “We just got here! It’s hardly fair to expel one of us over a _fitness test!”_

Aizawa-sensei scoffed. “And you think natural disasters are fair? What about power-hungry villains? Or catastrophes that whip out entire cities? No. The world is unfair, and as heroes, it is your job to take on that unfairness. To bear its weight and force some fairness on the world through your own strength of will. If you want to be a pro, you’ll have to push yourself to your limit, over and over again. For the next three years, UA is going to throw one challenge after another at you.” Aizawa-sensei grinned coldly at them. “So… go beyond. Plus Ultra style. Show me why you’re here.”

Okay. That was kinda cool, but still absolutely terrifying. How in the world was he supposed to ensure he didn’t get kicked out on day one?

The class was silent. “Well then?” Aizawa-sensei said after letting them think for a moment. “Let the games begin.”

Izuku watched carefully during the first event. They went two at a time for the fifty-meter dash. Almost everyone had little methods here and there to shave something off their time. Some, like Bakugou and Iida-san, had quirks perfectly suited for the task at hand. Izuku, meanwhile, had nothing but his completely normal body and a bunch of assassin training that didn’t actually help him here.

It was a test of his physical abilities, so Izuku did what was asked of him while trying not to get too scorched by Bakugou’s blasts. 7.13 seconds. That was actually really good. An improvement from last time at the very least. And Izuku _was_ the fastest flat land runner in 3-E, as well as one of their best free runners.

As the last person crossed the finish line, Izuku was struck by a thought. “ _Don’t disappoint me,”_ is what Aizawa-sensei had said to him. He definitely thought Izuku had some kind of potential, which also lined up with the note on the autograph he’d given Inko. Hard work and strong morals.

Either he was bluffing to get the best out of everyone, or that surprise round was going to level the playing field.

They moved onto the grip strength test, which was quick. UA had a lot of testers for it, so they were able to get almost everyone done at once. Izuku, firm in his belief that _something_ had to go right, calmed himself down, and went with the flow of things. Once he stopped worrying, he was able to spend some more time chatting with his classmates between tests. (While still carefully putting distance between himself and Bakugou at all times. The last thing he needed was the asshole getting angry over Izuku’s chatter.) He got to talk with most of them at some point or another, usually at least getting a name out of them. Some were chattier than others and would go for a little while once he showed some interest in what they had to say. Others, like Shouji-san and Kouda-san, were much quieter, preferring only a small greeting.

Izuku also made sure to give some quick encouragement to both Kouda-san, whose quirk allowed him to speak with animals, and Hagakure-san, the invisible girl.

Eventually, during the seated toe touch, Izuku got to speaking with the red-and-white-haired boy, or, as Izuku had figured out during the tests, Todoroki-san. “Why are you being so friendly?” Todoroki-san asked. “We’re not here to have fun. We’re not here to make friends. We’re here to train.”

Izuku sputtered. “Todoroki-san, our classmates are going to be our coworkers in the future. We need to know who they are, and we need to be able to get along and work with them. If you can’t do that, there is going to come a day where you are alone, and you need backup, and no one will be there. You don’t want to talk right now, that’s fine, but don’t expect others to follow your world view.”

Izuku quickly made his retreat, leaving Todoroki-san to think about what was said. It didn’t matter. He had other things to worry about. Like the mystery event, for example.

* * *

The class now stood outside a familiar set of walls and a massive doorway. And All Might was there. Why was All Might there?

“Hello there, students!”

“Drop it, All Might,” Aizawa-sensei interrupted. “You can do your grand introduction later. Now, for your final test. This one should be a familiar little game for you.” He took a small case from All Might and opened it, tossing an item from inside at Izuku. A… tracker of some sort? “You all are going to wear these trackers and go and hide in this fake city. While you are hiding, I will be hunting you. If you are caught, the tracker will flash red, and you must return to a holding area that will be clearly marked. All Might will be guarding that area. Classmates that are free can release those held, but All Might can and will capture anyone who gets too close.”

“So… Cops and Robbers?” Izuku interrupted.

“That’s right.”

“Sensei!” Iida-san said, raising his hand. “How are we to be graded for this test?”

“That’s what the trackers are for. They’re keyed to the boundary of the ‘jail.’ You will be graded by the percent of time out of jail. Keep in mind, your classmates are under no obligation to help you here, and it would be a huge risk to try and free anyone, so if you get caught early, you may be there for the rest of the game.”

“I’m not about to let anyone slip by me,” All Might boomed with a quick laugh.

“How long is the match?” Izuku said. He needed to keep an eye on the clock for this one. At least it was something they all knew. On the other hand, coordinating a strategy would be difficult given most wouldn’t want to take the risks.

“Twenty minutes.”

Not a lot then, but enough for a little chaos.

“Any other questions.”

There were none.

Aizawa-san nodded. “All Might, get in position.” All Might jumped over the wall and into the city, drawing delighted gasps from some students. The doors opened. “You kids get a one-minute head start.”

 _One minute!_ Izuku started running. He needed to get out of there immediately.

“One minute!?” Iida-san “Don’t we get any time to-”

“Shut up and run, Iida-san!” Izuku yelled over his shoulder. “No, we don’t get time to talk and strategize. _That’s the point!”_

Iida-san let out an offended squawk, but stopped complaining, quickly overtaking Izuku in the process.

No time like the present. Izuku turned off to the side allies and began to use his free running skills to his advantage. He climbed up, down, and over buildings, sliding through open windows and trying to stay both moving and out of sight. Periodically he’d hear yells and bangs, or explosions at one point, that told him someone had been found or slipped and fell. If they got found, they were almost guaranteed to have been caught. Eraserhead was an underground hero with an ambush and capture specialty. This was his playing field. Not to mention most of Izuku’s class would be effectively crippled once in Eraserhead’s line of sight with how they on their quirks. Izuku was pretty sure only himself, Asui-san, and Hagakure-san would be unaffected by their teacher’s gaze.

Five minutes in and Izuku wouldn’t have been surprised if half the class were captured.

Seven minutes in and Izuku was darting across a wide road when he saw something out of the corner of his eye that made his heart stop and his feet move faster than they were before. Izuku dove for cover and pressed himself against the cement ally wall.

He found the jail.

He found All Might and his classmates.

Seconds ticked by and nothing happened. All Might hadn’t seen him. Or maybe he had and was playing it safe in case Izuku had managed to get someone to work with him. Izuku scaled the building and began creeping across the rooftops to get a better vantage on the situation.

Afterall, if he had the option, he might as well make some trouble for Eraserhead. In the distance Izuku could see a massive glacier of ice that told him _exactly_ where Todoroki-san was. The annoying part was that his strategy would probably work. If Eraserhead didn’t have a way to melt the ice, there was going to be no way through to Todoroki-san.

Izuku made himself as small as possible up on the rooftop and looked down at the jail. Sitting inside were Bakugou, Tokoyami-san, Kirishima-san, Ashido-san, Mineta-san, Kaminari-san, Aoyama-san, Satou-san, Sero-san, Yaoyorozu-san, and Ojirou-san. Both Kaminari-san and Satou-san seemed to have gone overboard with their quirks, judging by their braindead expressions.

All Might stood in the middle of the group, surveying his surroundings diligently. But never looking up. Following the normal rules for Cops and Robbers, all Izuku had to do was tag them to free them, but that meant getting close to All Might and being in grabbing range. The jail was certainly big, for a normal person it would be incredibly easy to get the captives out with just a little bit of distraction, but All Might was fast enough (and focused enough), that he could simply come back and capture everyone again.

Izuku didn’t like this situation. How on earth was anyone supposed to get through that?

Izuku turned away from the view and found a stairwell to go down a few floors. Settling down near a window, just out of sight, Izuku waited. He doubted Aizawa-sensei would search for anyone this close to All Might. It would be downright stupid to stay this close. Unlike when they played with Korosensei and Karasuma-sensei, there wasn’t anything keeping All Might from pursuing them if they were seen. Also, unlike Korosensei, All Might couldn’t be bribed with pictures of women in bikinis.

Time passed, and Izuku got bored. Iida-san, Uraraka-san, and Shouji-san had joined the captured group, but nothing else had happened.

Well… there was one way he could cause some trouble, but Izuku wasn’t sure he wanted to mess with Yagi-san like that.

On the other hand, if the hero was foolish enough to answer at a time like this, that was his fault, not Izuku’s.

_Izuku: “hey yagi-san”_

_Izuku: “whatcha doin”_

_Yagi: “Izuku-kun. Please focus on the test.”_

_Izuku: “you actually brought your phone?”_

_Yagi: “Dont you need to worry about Aizawa-kun finding you?”_

_Izuku: “nah. he won’t look here”_

Something moved in another room.

_Izuku: “never mind. speak of the devil and all that”_

_Izuku: “bye yagi-san”_

Izuku tucked his phone away and slowly rose to his feet, trying not to shift his weight more than necessary. Someone was in here with him, and given the state of his class… odds were it was Eraserhead. Not great for him.

Izuku listened closely, trying to identify where the noises were coming from. Once he had an idea, Izuku began using his stealth training to creep along the walls and out of the room, moving quickly away from the source of the noise. He safely made it to the stairwell without crossing paths with the intruder and began making his way up to the roof again.

Keeping to his stealth, Izuku continued across the roof. Halfway to the edge, the door closed behind him.

Shit.

“Hello, Midoriya-kun.”

Izuku didn’t look behind himself before he bolted. A second of delay could easily mean the difference between getting caught and not.

Izuku launched himself off the building they were on, crossing the gap to the next. As his feet touched the ground, he heard a snap of cloth and dropped and rolled. Something ruffled his hair as it snapped again above his head, retreating back to Eraserhead for the next attack.

Izuku needed to get out of here. The wide-open space was making him easy to track and capture. On the other hand, while tight corners may make harder for Eraserhead to use his capture gear to actually capture Izuku, it would give him plenty to maneuver off of.

Either way, he needed to get off this roof and fast. The more often his feet were off the ground, the less maneuverability Izuku had.

A street light. Not the best option, but certainly the fastest, and Izuku knew he could use it safely.

He could hear Eraserhead getting closer. Izuku changed his course, angling to the side.

He jumped.

Eraserhead yelled something behind him.

So did Izuku’s classmates.

Shit. This was the main street to the jail. All Might would be able to see him. Too late to go back now.

Izuku’s hands caught on the cross beam of the light, swinging him forward. He released it and began dropping again. The ground was coming up. Izuku tucked and rolled with his momentum, coming gracefully to his feet. He needed to get out of sight _now._

Ally. He needed an ally.

Turning, he found Eraserhead glaring at him and blocking his path.

“Out of my way!” That was All Might. Izuku allowed himself a half second to glance back and saw his classmates scurrying out of the path while All Might struck a sprinter’s pose.

“Eyes on me, kid.”

Izuku snapped back and was just barely able to dodge Eraserhead’s hand. Why wasn’t he using his capture gear? Was Izuku too close?

Not important right now. All Might was coming.

Izuku dead dropped and rolled along the ground towards the jail.

All Might blew past over Izuku’s head and into Eraserhead.

Oh, Izuku was completely screwed. He scrambled back to his feet and began sprinting away from the now bickering heroes.

Was that…?

Izuku grinned and reached out, pushing himself just a little bit faster. “Hope you have a lot of hands, Shouji-san!” he said, slapping a hand attached to a long arm-like protrusion that Shouji-san had made to get closer to Izuku.

All Might and Eraserhead shut up behind him.

“Jailbreak!” Izuku screamed, cackling. Shouji-san immediately turned and began tagging the rest of their classmates, many of them sprinting off and tagging others along the way.

None of them stuck together.

Oh well. Time was almost up anyway, and Izuku was going to get captured between now and then. Nothing could change that.

A loud growl startled Izuku as a massive hand clamped over his shoulders and lifted him off the ground. Izuku’s tracker turned red. Izuku stopped struggling.

“You’ve caused us a lot of trouble, Midoriya-kun,” said All Might.

Izuku grinned back at him. “That was the point!”

All Might sighed and put him down. “Well, at least I’m not the one that has to go track them down.”

Izuku hummed in agreement as he stepped over the line into the jail. “Do you think any of them will come back for me?” he asked.

“Probably not. The risk is high and many of them need to spend as much time out of jail as possible to better their scores.”

“Yeah, some of them did get caught pretty fast.”

Grumbling caught their attention from one of the side roads. Mineta-san had been caught again. Izuku wasn’t really surprised. His quirk certainly had its uses but making himself faster didn’t seem to be one of them. At least, not without proper set up, which he couldn’t get with Eraserhead breathing down his neck. Add in Eraserhead _erasing_ his quirk, and Mineta-san had nothing to fall back on.

“How much time is left?” asked Izuku.

“About two minutes,” said All Might.

Izuku shrugged to himself, resigned to waiting. Nothing else he could do.

In the end, only Kirishima-san and Ashido-san were recaptured. Judging by the way Aizawa-sensei and Bakugou approached the gates to meet up with the rest of the class together, it had been a close call for Bakugou as well.

“Good, you’re all here,” Aizawa-sensei said. “Time to go over the scores. You’ve been ranked from best to worst. You should probably be able to figure out roughly where you are already, so I’ll just show you. No point in going over everything individually.” Aizawa-sensei used his phone to project the scoreboard and let the class look over it.

Todoroki-san was first. No surprises there. Not only was he physically fit with a powerful quirk, but he had been able to hide in his ice fortress the entire match. Bakugou was down at fifth, which was clearly grating on him. Izuku himself was at thirteenth, and, at the very bottom, was Mineta-san.

The scoreboard disappeared as Aizawa-sensei put it away. Izuku slowly glanced over at the shorter boy. Mineta-san was pale and shaking, his mouth hanging open and his eyes locked on where the scores had been, seeing nothing. Izuku couldn’t say he was surprised Mineta-san was last, but he didn’t think it was fair to expel him either.

It reminded him too much of being sent down to 3-E.

“And I was lying, no one’s going home.”

Mineta-san collapsed to the ground.

Amusement radiated off Aizawa-sensei. “That was just a logical ruse to get you to do your best.”

Yeah, that sounded about right. While Korosensei was more the kind to offer a carrot than a stick, putting something on the line was a great way to make sure students paid attention. While Izuku had no doubt Aizawa-sensei could expel them at the drop of a hat, doing it on the first day would be a bit hasty.

The rest of the class was not as assured as Izuku was, crying out in shock at the announcement, a few of them heaving sighs of relief. “I’m surprised the rest of you didn’t realize that,” Yaoyorozu-san said. “I’m sorry I should have said something.”

Izuku laughed. “Relax, Yaoyorozu-san. They’ll be fine. Just give them a little while to recover from the shock.”

“You knew, too!?” Uraraka-san said, pointing a shaking finger. “And you didn’t tell us? Rude!”

Izuku shook his head. “I _suspected,_ ” he corrected. “I didn’t really know. I’m pretty sure Aizawa-sensei could expel us if he wanted, he just decided we’re alright for now.”

And Bakugou was getting mad again. Probably best to stop attracting attention.

“Alright, that’s it for today. Head back and pick up a syllabus from the classroom,” said Aizawa-sensei. “Make sure you read it before tomorrow morning. Midoriya-kun, meet me at the office before you leave.”

Bakugou unleashed some explosions as he left, huffing to himself.

“Yes, Aizawa-sensei.”


	3. Logistics

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku and Aizawa talk about things. Nothing to worry about.

Izuku knocked on the door to the teacher’s lounge, fighting to pull the disgusted look off his face. The door slid open.

“Hey, there listener,” said Present Mic. “You’re here for Shouta, right?”

Izuku nodded.

“Something wrong?”

Izuku shook his head. “I-it’s nothing serious. I’ll talk to Aizawa-sensei about it.”

“If you say so. Hey, Shou! Your kid’s here!”

“They’re not my kids, Mic,” Aizawa-sensei grumbled from inside. “They’re my students. Are you going to let him in?”

Izuku was quickly ushered in and onto a stool next to Aizawa-sensei’s desk. Aizawa-sensei’s frown deepened when he glanced up at Izuku. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Uh, it’s not too important. Mineta-san just said some… uncomfortable things in the locker room while we were changing.”

“Towards you?”

“No… it was about the girls.”

“Anything that needs to be reported?”

Izuku hesitated. It wasn’t like he hadn’t heard similar things before. His classmates last year had had their perverted streaks. But this… Mineta-san was supposed to be a hero. Not… that. “Maybe. I’m not sure. It’s not… it honestly wasn’t even that bad, but… it just doesn’t sit right with me.”

Aizawa-sensei nodded. “Why don’t you tell me about it. I’ll write some things down just in case it does become an issue.”

Izuku nodded. That made a lot of sense. “He… he was talking about the girls and how hot they were. How… how their costumes had to look even better on them than the gym uniforms, and he was glad he wasn’t expelled before he got a chance to see them. He also mentioned rumors of a peep hole between the locker rooms, and that he couldn’t wait for a chance to make a move on one of them.”

Aizawa-sensei nodded along as he finished writing it down. “Thank you for telling me, Midoriya-kun. I’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Right, thank you for listening. But, um… what did you want to talk to me about?”

Aizawa-sensei set the papers aside and picked up a pamphlet with some sticky notes on it. He handed it to Izuku. “Your use of improvised explosives caught the attention of some of the staff.”

Izuku winced again. “So I’ve heard,” he said, glancing down at the pamphlet and beginning to flip through it. It seemed to be a list of specialized classes, most of them related to safety with specific pieces of gear and weaponry. There were a few relating to specific types of scenarios, but not many.

“Yes, well. Given the fact that you were able to make them and use them without causing any harm to your fellow classmates, we’ve decided to place you in a class on explosives after school.”

That was where the sticky note was marked.

“I’m not going to lie to you, Midoriya-kun, your quirklessness is playing a factor. While we wouldn’t have offered it without the display of responsibility and maturity with simple improvised explosives, we also aren’t having Bakugou-kun take the class.”

“It’s because you think I need more,” said Izuku, only half paying attention as he looked through the rest of the classes more closely. “You’re not wrong. Bakugou only needs a license to use his quirk to get a wide variety of explosions. I don’t have that luxury, so I need to get licensed to handle explosives. If anything, the hero license is the one that’s useless to me.”

“I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

“Did you already sign me up?”

Aizawa-sensei nodded. “Classes start tomorrow. It usually isn’t open to first years, given they already have a lot of ground to cover, and they don’t usually have the emotional maturity yet, so the class largely consists of third years with a few second years.”

“Alright, thank you, Aizawa-sensei. Is there anything else?”

The corners of Aizawa-sensei’s mouth twitched upward. “I can tell you’re interested in some of the other classes. Do you want to register for any of them now?”

Izuku’s cheeks burned, and he glanced back down at the pamphlet, checking dates and times. Whether or not he could sign up for others would depend heavily on whether or not he could test out of the course he was in now. “Ah, no. Not right now. With Sentoki-sensei’s lessons and my other training regiments, I should probably wait to avoid over burdening myself.”

“I’m glad you’re being logical about this. You can keep the pamphlet to plan out any future classes. As for Sentoki-sensei…”

“What about Sentoki-sensei?”

“I overheard what you told her. About the money running out.”

Right. Of course he did. “Technically… I do have a way to cover it. I just… don’t want to use that money just yet. Emergency funds are for emergencies, and all that.” Well, less _emergency funds_ and more _money recently obtained from the government that Izuku didn’t want to explain._

Aizawa-sensei watched him for a second. “How about this, UA will cover two-thirds of the cost. The rest will be up to you.”

Izuku watched him for a second. Aizawa-sensei watched him back. He was leaning back in his chair, face blank, hands relaxed. There wasn’t any sign of a joke or a trick. He was being as serious as ever. “You’d do that?”

Aizawa-sensei shrugged. “It’s only logical. Your fighting ability is important, so you continuing to study your chosen form is something UA is going to invest in. We’d do it for any student that had been studying martial arts and found themselves unable to pay for their lessons anymore.”

Izuku smiled softly. “Thank you, Aizawa-sensei.”

Aizawa-sensei waved him off and stood. “That’s all I’ve got for you. You know what your homework is.”

Izuku nodded back. “Yes, Aizawa-sensei. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Izuku hurried down to the gate, ready to head home. Waiting at the gates was a small group of people. Specifically, three of Izuku’s classmates.

“Midoriya-kun!” Iida-san said, hands making swift chopping motions while his voice was as loud as ever. “How are you? And how was your meeting with Aizawa-sensei?”

“Uh, it was fine,” Izuku answered. “Nothing you need to worry about, Iida-san.”

Iida-san nodded. “Kirishima-kun wanted to wait for you, but said he needed to hurry to catch his train. We were just talking about Aizawa-sensei’s methods.”

“Iida-san thinks it’s a little dishonorable,” Uraraka-san laughed.

“Yes, I do frown upon such dishonesty,” Iida-san confirmed. “But this is the most prestigious hero school, so I suppose I shouldn’t question it too harshly.”

“We think it was a little mean,” Hagakure-san said, “but we’re not as concerned as Iida-san is. And anyway, I never got a chance to thank you for talking to me during the test. You really helped calm me down. Though you did do better than me.”

“It’s no big deal. Your sit-and-reach score was amazing, and most of those tests weren’t in your area of expertise. I’m guessing you mostly did gymnastics and maybe a martial art to train for UA?”

“Huh, yeah. How’d you figure that out?”

Izuku shrugged. “Your flexibility is definitely something you trained, and it would work well if you want to focus on stealth and infiltration, but you didn’t get here with only that. You probably would have failed the entrance exam if you didn’t have some way of fighting. You might want to consider looking into free running. It’ll build off your gymnastics to help your mobility when you need to move fast in a complicated landscape.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Hey, where are you headed from here, Midoriya-kun?” Uraraka-san said as they finally began to exit the gates.

“I’m taking the train home.”

“Same here! Well, to my apartment. My parents live too far away, so we’re renting a place for me to stay in while I’m at school.”

“I am also taking the train,” said Iida-san.

“I’m not,” Hagakure-san said, her shoulders seeming to slump in disappointment. “But I can at least walk you there!” she suddenly cheered as she perked up.

“But what do you think about Aizawa-sensei’s ‘logical ruse’?” Iida-san said, bringing the conversation back around.

Izuku pretended to think for a moment. “It’s certainly unusual,” he said slowly, “but it also makes sense. He hasn’t had a chance to get to know us yet and figure out what best motivates each of us. On top of that, he had to motivate the entire class at once, so he pulled out something he knew we all cared about. We all want to be here. You won’t make it as a student, or even attend, if you don’t want to be here. It may not have been honorable, but that wasn’t the point.

“Like he said. The world isn’t fair. People are going to lie to you. Manipulate you. They’re going to have their own concerns and goals that might be the opposite of what you want, or at least different enough to cause problems.” Izuku shrugged. “Aizawa-sensei isn’t concerned with being honorable. He’s concerned with preparing us for the world. And he sees the darkest corners of it as an underground hero. We’ll be seeing a lot of those rotting bits as well, once we graduate.”

Iida-san hummed. “That was very insightful, Midoriya-kun. I will keep that in mind in the future.”

“Yeah, but not everyone is like that,” Uraraka-san piped up. “People are honest and kind as well.”

“Yeah,” said Hagakure-san. “You can’t let yourself become too jaded, or you’ll lose sight of what your protecting.”

Izuku nodded along. “The world is a complicated place. As heroes, we’ll need to be able to see the kindest and gentlest parts, but also the most hardened and greedy. We also need to remember that it isn’t simple or easy. Everyone has both in them. Everyone has kindness and anger in them. It’s just a matter of what they act on at the moment.”

The conversation continued from there. Izuku hadn’t expected to get into a philosophical debate after school, and yet here he was, talking about the nature of humanity and how hero work related to it. They said goodbye to Hagakure-san at the station, and quickly found themselves going their separate ways as well as they took different trains to different parts of the city.

Alone on the crowded train, Izuku’s phone began to ring. With a small smile, Izuku plugged in some headphones, and answered Ritsu-san’s call.

“Hello, Izuku-kun!” she greeted as she popped up on his screen, dismissing the other apps. “How was your first day of school?”

“It went well, Ritsu-san. I’m probably going to have the easiest transition out of everyone. How was your day of not-school?”

“It was fun. I learned a lot about humanity today, and I think I discovered a new emotion. I haven’t figured out what it is yet, but it’s something.”

“That’s nice. Are you talking to anyone else right now?”

Ritsu-san shook her head. “No, I still prefer talking to you one at a time, but I will be checking up on everyone before the day is out. I might have to set up a rotation for who I call after school, given how many of you there are.”

“Yeah, we’ll probably wind up talking about school a lot in the group chat anyway, so you might not get a chance to talk to everyone directly.”

“You said you’d have an easy transition earlier, why is that.”

Izuku’s smile wavered. “UA likes unorthodox teaching methods, especially my homeroom teacher. We didn’t go to the opening ceremony, instead we were testing the limits of our quirks. Get this, Ritsu-san, we played cops and robbers.”

“That does sound familiar,” Ritsu-san said, laughing softly. “Are they a lot like Korosensei?”

“Actually, he’s more like Karasuma-sensei,” Izuku corrected. “I think they’d get along pretty well. I even met him before. Have I ever told you about Aizawa-san?”

“I think you mentioned him. He goes to your dojo, right?”

Izuku nodded. “Off and on. Probably because he’s so busy with hero work and teaching. He’s my homeroom teacher now.”

“Sounds like an interesting day.”

“It was, and the rest of the semester’s to be just as busy.”

“You’ll have to make sure to tell the rest of the class in the group chat later. Nagisa is the next on my list. Talk to you later, Izuku-kun?”

“Yeah, we’ll talk later Ritsu-san.”


	4. Say Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roll call sure is a thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, school started again. Good news is I have a schedule for my life. Not so good news, I'm still not writing as much as I would like to be, mostly because this is going to be a very busy year. And a stressful one.

The next day started out similar enough to the first. Izuku left early with his bento and a note from his mom that had been taped to the door. She’d probably start putting them on the bentos soon to save on tape, but that was neither here nor there. Izuku got to school early and started on his mission.

Today, he was looking for the school charter and student handbook. He wanted to know every rule and procedure he could get his hands on. Yeah, some of it was going to be out of date and irrelevant, but he still wanted to know where he was standing. Not to mention he needed to know how to protect his spot when the Sports Festival rolled around.

That task was almost completely uneventful. He found the books and started making notes. He didn’t get through all of the rules and regulations in the handbooks and charter, but he got a lot of information, nonetheless. Pretty much all of it was self-explanatory, standard, or not relevant for the time being. Still, it was something.

When it was time, Izuku returned to the classroom and found his seat. Unfortunately, it was the one right behind Bakugou. As much as they both wanted to stay away from each other, they were stuck like this.

Aizawa-sensei actually walked into the class this time, but he was still carrying the sleeping bag behind him. He dropped a thin booklet on the lectern with a resounding slap and turned his tired gaze on the class. Everyone was silent and in their seats, waiting patiently. Aizawa-sensei nodded slightly and sighed. “Apparently, I am required to actually do roll call every once in a while, despite the fact that I can see all of you in your seats, so let’s get this over with.”

Izuku’s heart stalled and his hands began to sweat. He fidgeted slightly and his fingers twitched, one hand sliding to his side where he used to hide his gun. Why? Why was he reacting like this?

“You all know how this goes. I say your name and you—"

_“… say here in a loud clear voice when your name is called.”_

Izuku took deep shuddering breaths as his chest constricted. He could feel Korosensei’s soft tentacle under his hands. He brought his hands together, folding them in front of him and squeezing, hoping that would drive the feeling, the memory, away.

“Aoy—"

_“Akabane Karma.”_

“Here!”

That wasn’t Karma-kun’s voice. Izuku wasn’t on the mountain. He was in a classroom. It was day, not night. This wasn’t—

“Ashido Mina.”

“Here!”

He couldn’t think about that right now. He needed to focus on the here and now. Not what happened a month ago. He needed to… He needed…

Izuku could feel his eyes burning as he tried his hardest to blink back the tears. His chest was tight and refused to bring in the oxygen he needed. Even now, knowing what was happening he could feel the phantom sensation of holding down his teacher. He could see in his mind’s eye the small lights Korosensei had become when he died. He could hear-

“Bakugou Katsuki.”

“Here.”

They were this far along already? Focus. Be here.

“Midoriya Izuku.”

“H-here,” Izuku gasped.

Roll call stopped. Izuku could feel everyone watching him. He just needed… He just needed to get through this.

“… Mineta Minoru.”

“Here?”

Shit. Why couldn’t they just forget him and move on? Just leave him alone.

“And Yaoyorozu Momo.”

“Here.”

It was done. It was over. It didn’t feel over. After roll call came… no. Not here. Not now.

“Now that that’s done-”

“Aizawa-sensei! May I-”

“Just go, Midoriya-kun.”

Izuku bowed and left. He tried to keep his gait calm and controlled, but all he succeeded in doing was not running in the classroom. He closed the door behind him and turned blindly, running down the hall. His vision was long since lost to the tears, but his feet carried him on.

He needed to get out of sight. He needed to be alone. He needed time and distance.

Izuku blinked and wiped at his cheeks, taking a gasping breath as he tried to figure out where to go. Last year if he needed to get away from things, he could have just disappeared off into the forest. The class would have respected that, and by the end, they probably would have needed help from Karasuma-sensei or Korosensei to track him down.

Here he probably wouldn’t be able to leave the building.

Izuku blinked at the door just down the hallway. A bathroom would work. No one should be in there right now. If he plans to stay past the bell, he might need to find another place to go. It would work for now.

Izuku stepped inside, and what little remained of the barriers of his self-control crumbled. He sobbed with great heaving gasps, and the tears rushed freely as he leaned heavily on the sink. It hurt. Everything hurt.

Seriously, roll call? Izuku had expected to have some odd holdovers from his time in the Assassination Classroom, but… not this. He’d expected to want to reach for weapons he didn’t have. Make jokes and plans that the others couldn’t understand. He expected paranoia and needing to explain some of his skills.

He hadn’t expected his fingers to itch for his gun when it became obvious what was happening. He didn’t expect to be forced to remember how he had murdered his teacher at his weakest point because of something as simple as _roll call._

Actually, he should have expected the gun part. They had attacked Korosensei at the start of the day while he took attendance often enough. Sure, they had learned it wasn’t going to work, but doing it randomly helped keep both them and their target, their _teacher_ , on their toes.

Izuku gave a wet laugh.

Those early days when they were willing to try anything but never got anywhere were fun. Every attempt to kill him was fun.

Except for the last one that succeeded.

That wasn’t fun. It was cruel. The world was cruel for making them do that. It was the only way to respect their bond with Korosensei, but it was cruel.

Izuku sucked in shuddering breath after breath until they evened out and the tears slowed to a stop. Watching his face in the mirror, Izuku wiped away the tears and snot, washing them off with some water from the sink. His eyes were still rimmed with red, and his face still splotchy, but it wasn’t as bad as when he started.

He sank down and curled in on himself under the sinks, pressing his back to the firm, cool tile wall. He was done crying for now, but he wasn’t ready to leave just yet. Izuku pulled out his phone and typed.

_Izuku: “roll call sucks”_

_Karasuma: “Shouldn’t you be in class right now?”_

That’s right. Izuku forgot Karasuma-sensei was in the group chat. He got added after what happened so he could live up to his promise to take care of them. So did Bitch-sensei, actually. She was generally more active but was probably busy right now.

_Izuku: “probably”_

_Izuku: “like i said, roll call sucks”_

_Izuku: “yes, i’ll talk to ashisuto-san about it”_

_Karasuma: “Do you want to talk now?”_

_Izuku: “... no, but thanks for the offer. you’re probably busy”_

_Karasuma: “Not really. It’s just some paperwork. It can wait.”_

_Izuku: “i’ll be alright anyway”_

_Okano: “You didn’t have roll call yesterday?”_

_Izuku: “my homeroom teacher wouldn’t be taking roll at all if he could avoid it”_

_Izuku: “sees it as a waste of time”_

_Nagisa: “Yeah roll call sucks and I’m going to have to deal with it for the rest of my life”_

_Nakamura: “You’ll probably end up desensitized to it eventually.”_

_Izuku: “wait shit”_

_Izuku: “the bells about to ring isn’t it?”_

_Ritsu: “You’re correct. According to the schedule, it should start in three seconds.”_

The bell rang, and Izuku flinched. Great. Hopefully no one came in here.

_Izuku: “well, i should probably put my phone away and stop hiding in the bathroom soon”_

_Ritsu: “Nedzu-san has informed Aizawa-san of where you went.”_

_Izuku: “thanks for the warning. bye guys”_

Izuku tucked his phone back in his pocket and-

The door opened. Izuku looked up, meeting the gaze of the intruder in the eyes. Neither moved. Wait. Isn’t that the quiet third year that was friends with Togata-senpai? His ears were pointy. Izuku hadn’t noticed that before.

The student turned around and walked out of the room. Seconds later, Togata-senpai came in. He approached Izuku slowly, settling himself on the floor a few feet away. “Are you alright? Midoriya-kohei, right? Tamaki told me you might need someone to talk to.”

Izuku nodded. “Y-yeah. I… I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

Izuku blinked then started scrubbing at his face. Had he started crying again? He hoped not. He really was feeling better after talking to his old classmates.

“… how was your first day?”

“Huh?” Why was he asking about that? “Um… it was fine. Aizawa-sensei’s pretty interesting, and my classmates are nice enough.”

“You got Aizawa-sensei?”

Izuku nodded. “Yeah… is he always…”

“Like that? Yeah, pretty much. Fun fact- actually, no. That would probably scare you. I shouldn’t tell you that.”

Izuku chuckled. “Don’t worry about scaring me. I’m pretty sure he likes me.”

Togata-senpai’s gentle smile grew into a broad grin. “If you’re right, then you understand him better than most people. Alright then. He expelled his entire class last year.”

“What? The entire class?” That certainly didn’t bode well.

Togata-senpai nodded. “No one really knows why or what happened, but, as much as he says he can do what he wants with his class, expulsions have to be approved by Nedzu-sama, so he had to have a good reason.”

That was right. Izuku had read that this morning. “Nedzu-sama must trust him a lot.”

“Trust who?”

Izuku jumped, hitting his head on the sink. He hissed and rubbed the aching spot as he glanced over at the doorway. “Hello, Aizawa-sensei.”

The exhausted teacher sighed. “Thank you for taking care of my student, Togata-kun. I can take it from here.”

Togata-senpai nodded and helped Izuku out from under the sink. “Alright. I’ll see you around, right, Midoriya-kohai?”

“Yes, Senpai.”

One last firm nod and he was gone.

“Come on, Midoriya-kun. Let’s get you to Recovery Girl.”

Izuku fell in step with Aizawa-sensei, letting the teacher guide him, showing him a faster route than the one Izuku knew. “I didn’t realize I went so far,” Izuku said as they walked past the third-year classrooms.

Aizawa-sensei hummed. “You were quite distressed. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

“That’s it?”

“For now. You’re not ready to talk, and I’m not going to push.”

That was… nice. Aizawa-sensei opened the door to the nurse’s office and pushed Izuku in in front of him. Recovery Girl-sensei looked up from the supplies she had been stocking and organizing. “Homeroom just ended, how are you injured already?” she asked.

“Uh… hit my head on a sink. It was just a small bump. I’ll be fine.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Take a seat. You know the drill, Midoriya-kun.”

“You’ve met before?” Aizawa-sensei asked from where he was rummaging in a cabinet.

Recovery Girl-sensei hummed a confirmation as she poked and prodded at the bump Izuku had shown her. “Yes,” she said. “Yagi-san brought him here after an altercation. It does seem to be a minor bump. Here, just ice it for a while. You don’t need my quirk for that. If you need any pain killers later or notice any odd symptoms, come talk to me.”

“Yes, Recovery Girl-sensei,” said Izuku.

Aizawa-sensei returned and quickly draped a blanket around Izuku’s shoulders and pressed a small handful of gummies into Izuku’s hand. “I’m glad he’s not hurt, but that’s not really why I brought him here.”

“I’m not in shock, Aizawa-sensei,” Izuku said as he put a few gummies in his mouth. He could do with some sweets.

“Maybe not, but you should still take some time to let yourself calm down, and I doubt you’re back to where you need to be after six minutes hiding in a bathroom.”

“What happened?” Recovery Girl-sensei asked.

“Midoriya-kun…” Aizawa-sensei quickly trailed off, sending Izuku a thoughtful look.

“You can tell her.”

“I’m not concerned about that. I’m thinking about how to word it. I don’t really know what happened.”

Izuku shrugged. He certainly didn’t know how to word it either. Ashisuto-san would probably call it an “episode,” but Izuku didn’t want to imply this was a regular occurrence. “I freaked out,” he finally said.

“Badly,” Aizawa-sensei tacked on.

“Very badly,” Izuku agreed.

“Do you know why?” Recovery Girl-sensei asked.

Aizawa-sensei watched Izuku closely as he thought about how to answer that question. Izuku put another gummy in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. “Roll call,” he said.

Aizawa-sensei raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. “Are you willing to tell me why roll call caused that reaction?”

“No.”

“You should make sure you talk to someone, dearie,” said Recovery Girl-sensei. “It’s not healthy to ignore it.”

“I will,” said Izuku. “Wait. I will talk to someone, that is. Not… bottle it up.”

“Well, that covers that,” Aizawa-sensei said, rising from his chair. “Whenever you’re ready to go back to class-”

Izuku stood up and set aside the blanket.

“Midoriya-kun…”

“You said whenever I’m ready. I’m ready.”

“You don’t need to-”

“I want to go back.”

“If you turn this one into a workaholic, Shouta-kun, I swear.”

“I’m not trying. Fine, I won’t stop you, but if you ever feel overwhelmed, you will come back.”

“Yes, Aizawa-sensei!”


	5. Lesson 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All Might's first time teaching. He technically isn't the one that messed anything up, so that's a plus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm not dead.
> 
> School sucked this semester and it's probably going to suck more next semester. So, I guess this is your warning. I will probably disappear again after the holidays (assuming I get more than one chapter out while on break).
> 
> We'll see how it goes.

Classes continued as normal with Izuku in only a mild daze. Part of it was because of what happened earlier, but it was also because he was bored. He hadn’t quite believed Takebayashi-kun when he said they were ahead of class A’s lessons until now. But even UA’s lessons were starting among the last things Korosensei had taught them. Even English was behind him, although the vocabulary focus had shifted significantly, which didn’t even matter much because they needed to have the standard vocabulary for the exams in addition to what Bitch-sensei had taught them.

Either way, Izuku wasn’t paying much attention. When lunch rolled around, he simply pulled out his bento and began to settle down to eat.

“Midoriya-kun?”

Izuku glanced up at Iida-san’s very confused face, followed by Uraraka-san’s much less confused, but still confused, expression in the background.

“Yes?” Izuku said frowning. What was wrong now?

“I… understand if you would like some time alone after this morning,” Iida-san said, “but… would you rather join us in the cafeteria?”

In the… that was right. He could actually go to the cafeteria now. No more eating in the classroom and wherever else they could settle down. Eating with the rest of the school was actually an option. “Right. Yes.” He quickly recovered his bento and stood to follow them. “Let’s go.” His smile did little to alleviate Iida-san’s worries.

“Hey, Midoriya-kun,” Uraraka-san said as she and Iida-san returned with their food. “I’ve been meaning to ask, you and Bakugou-kun know each other, right? Why does he keep calling you Deku?”

Izuku reared back. Great, he’s already been having a bad day and now he has to deal with this. “W-when did he call me _deku_?”

“It’s hard to hear, he’s usually just grumbling when he says it,” Iida-san said, “but after you left his morning, he said some… unsavory things that don’t bear repeating.”

“You don’t seem happy about it…” Uraraka-san said.

Izuku’s nose wrinkled. “Yeah, it’s an insult. He’s calling me useless. You know. Like the wooden dummy. It’s a pun from the kanji in my name.”

Uraraka-san pouted.

“Well, that’s just rude,” Iida-san said, sounding scandalized.

“I thought it was going to be something like that after this morning. It’s too bad that’s what he’s saying. I thought it had come from dekiru before, with all your _can-do_ attitude.”

“Ah… that’s very nice of you to say Uraraka-san.”

“But how do you and Bakugou-kun know each other, Midoriya-kun?”

Iida-san must really be curious. “We grew up together,” Izuku answered. “We live in the same area and have been going to the same school since preschool. He used to be really nice to play with, but… he got a big ego boost when his quirk came in. He hasn’t been the same since then.”

“Alright, that’s enough of that!” Uraraka-san interrupted. “What do you guys think we’ll do this afternoon? We have practical lessons today.”

That was a good question. It would depend heavily on who was teaching them. What they had available would be important if not for UA’s seemingly endless supply of money. Whatever they needed, UA would provide.

* * *

“Get ready, students, for I am here!” All Might marched into the room in his red and blue silver age costume amid excited chatter from the class. “Welcome to the most important class at UA! For you lot anyway. It’s hero-ing 101! Here you will learn the basics of what it means, and what it takes, to be a pro!”

“Ah, man, I can’t wait to see what our costumes look like!” Kaminari-san chirped over the general hum of the class’s enthusiasm to be learning from All Might himself.

“Not so fast, Kaminari-shounen!” All Might boomed, wagging a finger at him. “There’s more to being a hero than simply looking good.” That didn’t sound like All Might. “And your costumes aren’t ready just yet anyway.” There it was. Izuku couldn’t say he was surprised. His costume had more than enough red tape to cause a few delays.

“What the hell are we doing if we’ve got no costumes?” Bakugou asked.

“I’m glad you asked, Bakugou-shounen,” said All Might with a small signature laugh. “Change into your gym uniforms and meet me in gym alpha!”

The class was quick on their feet this time, moving smoothly to the locker rooms and changing without much fanfare. They entered gym alpha, a wide-open room with lots of mats, as a group and found All Might and Aizawa-sensei waiting for them there. All Might quickly perked up and began to explain. “Welcome to gym alpha!” he said. “Now, since we don’t have your costumes ready yet, we can’t just jump right in. Instead-”

“Who here has any formal training with martial arts?”

“We’re working on hand-to-hand combat without quirks!”

Clearly Aizawa-sensei didn’t want to wait any longer. Izuku raised his hand. So did Todoroki-san, Iida-san, Yaoyorozu-san, Hagakure-san, Jirou-san, Ojirou-san, Asui-san, Kouda-san, Kirishima-san, Shouji-san, and, of course, Bakugou.

“You lot are with me, come on,” Aizawa-sensei said, leading them to one side of the room.

“And the rest of you are with me!”

“All Might-sensei,” Satou-san said, raising his hand, “why are we breaking into these two groups?”

“It’s simple really,” All Might answered. “It wouldn’t be fair to either group if we tried to make you learn together. Either you would find yourself out of your depth if we forced you to spar with them, or they would be stuck going through basic drills they already know. By splitting you up, each student can get the lesson they deserve. Now, let’s get going, shall we?”

“Midoriya-kun, pay attention.”

“Right, yes, Aizawa-sensei,” said Izuku as he snapped his attention back to Aizawa-sensei as All Might began to teach them basic forms and how to throw a punch.

“I hope you all heard what All Might said earlier. Quirk use is not allowed for this exercise. Pair up and start sparring. We’ll rotate through matches until I can get a better idea of where each of you are at.”

“Midoriya-kun, would you like to be my partner?”

Izuku pushed a smile on his face. “Sure, thing, Iida-san. I’d be happy to spar with you.”

The first match with Iida-san set the tone for the others fairly well. Iida-san very clearly had a lot of formal training and knew how to use his body, but he was also used to doing specific set and likely had only sparred against a handful of people, often relying on his quirk. His movements were stiff and predictable and slow now that he didn’t have his quirk to back him up. He relied heavily on his legs, which could certainly do a lot of damage, but left him open to easy attacks from Izuku.

Most of the others were similar. Stiff, slow and predictable. Both Todoroki-san and Ojirou-san showed more skill and fluidity in their movements. They were more creative and adaptable.

Kirishima-san had the potential to be interesting, if not for the fact that he didn’t like to fight dirty and inevitably left gaping holes in his defenses that Izuku took advantage of. Spotting another one, Izuku moved in for the kill and quickly pinned Kirishima-san with his legs wrapped around the other’s throat, cutting off the taller boy’s air way. Kirishima-san sputtered and struggled for a moment before tapping out. Izuku released his hold and stepped back to let him catch his breath.

“Is that allowed?” Hagakure-san said from a spot on the floor she’d claimed while she took a break.

Ojirou-san nodded “It doesn’t exactly seem…”

“… Fair.” Iida-san finished.

“Did I say anything was off limits when we started?” Aizawa-sensei countered. “Villains aren’t going to hold back just to fight fair. It’s the same as yesterday, do what you have to do to get the results you need so long as you don’t do permanent harm.”

Ojirou-san did not look convinced. “He could have done permanent harm to Kirishima-kun.”

“Yes, I could have,” Izuku said, joining the conversation. “But I didn’t, and I won’t. If I didn’t think I could use a move safely, I wouldn’t use it on a living person at all. I also had to trust him not to take it too far.”

“Alright, that’s enough. Switch partners and get back to work.”

“Yes, Sensei!”

Hagakure-san was next. In comparison to the others, she was an interesting challenge simply because of her quirk. Izuku couldn’t tell if she was doing anything special or if she was just as predictable as the others simply because he… well, he couldn’t exactly predict what he couldn’t see. There were a lot of things he could us as simple predictors for her, but nothing beat actually being able to see the thing that was going to hit you. Izuku wasn’t even sure what her actual reach was.

Maybe he should ask Sentoki-sensei about that one fighting style that was developed by blind monks. It would certainly help in this situation, and probably a lot of others.

Following Hagakure-san was Yaoyorozu-san, who was somehow both more and less stiff than the others. She had some creative moves that Izuku wouldn’t have seen coming, if not for the fact that she was so slow to implement them.

“Switch!”

Izuku bowed to Yaoyorozu-san and thanked her for the match before turning to find his next opponent…

He really should have known this was coming. How they’d managed to get this far without really interacting at all was something of a mystery, but now there wasn’t a choice.

“Come on, Deku,” Bakugou growled as they began circling. “Don’t think I’m going to hold back on you just because you’re a weak piece of shit.”

Izuku scowled, but decided not to respond, ducking under Bakugou’s customary right hook and taking advantage of the opening to sock him in the stomach. “I won’t be holding back either.”

Bakugou growled but shook it off, coming in fast. Bakugou’s style was exactly like Izuku remembered. He moved fast and hit hard, but he also left big openings. His movements were fluid and precise as he switched tactics. He just wasn’t used to anyone actually fighting back. And Izuku wasn’t going to roll over. Not this time.

Not anymore.

Izuku couldn’t avoid every hit, not with Bakugou getting in close and trying to control the fight through brute force, but for every hit Bakugou actually managed to land, there were three he didn’t and two hits Izuku got in on him.

And with every strike Izuku dodged and deflected, Izuku could see Bakugou’s confusion grow. With every hit Izuku landed, he just got angrier.

“What? Now, you fight back?” Bakugou barked, knocking Izuku back a step. “Were you holding back when we were kids? Or did hanging out with the other losers teach you to grow a spine? I know Terasaka wouldn’t have let a Deku like you run—"

Izuku clocked him across the jaw, cutting off his rant. “ _That’s not my name,_ ” he growled back, letting go and launching himself at the bastard that had destroyed his childhood.

Bakugou roared in defiance and met the challenge head on.

Everything blurred. Izuku didn’t think, just did. After everything that happened that day, he didn’t particularly care.

Something cracked under Izuku’s hands. Something popped in his elbow and seared with pain.

Arms wrapped around Izuku’s torso, pulling him away, Izuku thrashed and used his good arm to lever himself up, pushing with his weight and momentum to knock the new attacker over. This wasn’t their fight.

“Stand down, now!”

Izuku froze. The room was silent. Izuku slowly turned and faced Aizawa-sensei twisting awkwardly in Iida-san’s arms. Aizawa-sensei looked furious. Even on the other side of the gym, All Might’s group had stopped and were watching, faces slack.

“You two, with me, _now._ The rest of you go help All Might.”

Iida-san slowly released Izuku, watching him carefully as Izuku got back to his feet and walked calmly to Aizawa-sensei as though he hadn’t just attacked a classmate for real.

Aizawa-sensei was fuming as he walked them down the halls. Izuku and Bakugou were in front where he could see them, silently walking with at least a meter between them. Neither did anything to acknowledge the other.

They marched quickly to Recovery Girl-sensei’s office and were quickly directed to separate beds, ignoring Recovery Girl-sensei’s questions for the moment.

“Bakugou-kun’s arm is broken. Midoriya-kun’s elbow is dislocated.” Aizawa-sensei sat in his chair with a force only someone supremely pissed off can have.

Recovery Girl-sensei looked over the boys. “Alright then, let’s start with Bakugou-kun.”

Patching them up was a quick affair, even with the silence stifling the room. “I thought today was supposed to be a simple and easy one,” Recovery Girl-sensei said as she finished up her work with Izuku.

“Supposed to be, yes,” Aizawa-sensei quickly agreed. “Would you two like to explain what happened for me? I would like to say you’re better than this, but I don’t really know you.”

Izuku winced under the accusation and hazarded a glance at Bakugou, who… did he actually look guilty? Remorseful? That was new.

“Would you rather I take this to Nedzu-san? I’ll be getting the story one way or another. The question is how much trouble you want to be in.”

Bakugou flinched this time. “I’d rather not.”

“Rather not what, Bakugou-kun?”

“Talk about it.”

“You don’t get a choice in that right now. And you, Midoriya-kun.” Izuku felt his spine straighten, as though it had been replaced with a metal rod. “I hope you have a damn good explanation for why you broke his arm.”

Izuku shrank back again. “I don’t, sir.”

Aizawa-sensei huffed, suddenly dialing back. His bloodlust still permeated the room and rolled off him in waves, but he wasn’t glaring at them anymore. “What I’m hearing is that both of you think you should be expelled.”

Both boys immediately started talking.

“Please, no.”

“Goddamnit, you don’t need to do that.”

“Not after everything I went through.”

“I put too much work into this shit.”

“Then I suggest you start talking,” Aizawa-sensei said, cutting them off.

Recovery Girl-sensei suddenly whacked the side of her desk with her cane. “I doubt you boys think you can get away with causing this much harm to each other in a simple sparring match without some kind of explanation.”

“… No, ma’am,” Bakugou answered.

“Well then?”

“Not in front of him.” Bakugou’s voice was barely more than a whisper, almost making Izuku doubt he’d even spoken.

That seemed to get Aizawa-sensei’s interest. “And why is that?” he asked.

“Just because someone is willing to… acknowledge what went wrong, doesn’t mean they’re ready to confront the issue directly,” Izuku answered quickly.

“Don’t go putting words in my fucking mouth!” Bakugou snapped.

“Am I wrong?” Izuku snarled.

“Boys!”

Izuku’s jaw clicked shut, and Bakugou’s voice died in his throat.

“Alright then,” Aizawa-sensei said, standing. “Midoriya-kun, come with me. Bakugou-kun, stay here. I’ll come back to talk with you.”

Izuku nodded and followed his teacher, quickly settling on a stool across from him in the private lounge. “Well?” Aizawa-sensei said, gesturing for Izuku to get on with it.

“Do you want the long version or the short version?”

“I already know you and Bakugou-kun went to the same school. I know something happened between you two. Clearly I need some more context.”

Aizawa-sensei knew what now. How did he… probably Yagi-san. Or Recovery Girl-sensei. Though that did raise the question of how they identified Bakugou. “Guess that means you want the long version.”

“That would be helpful, yes.”

“We…” how did he explain this. He had been hoping to get away with the short version, but… “We were close, a long time ago. Best friends even. Then… he got his quirk, and I didn’t. Our teachers immediately started praising him as some… up and coming hero. It went to his head and his arrogant streak turned into an aggressive and violent one. No one really did anything to stop him, and… I became an easy target in general.”

“He bullied you?”

Izuku shrugged. “He values strength above all else. Not that he knows what real strength is. To him, the ‘worthless little deku’ was a prime example of weakness, and he decided to make an example of what happens to those that reach to far.”

“Deku? Is that supposed to be an insult?”

Izuku glanced around. “Do you have some paper I could borrow for a second.”

Aizawa-sensei grunted and passed some over. Izuku wrote out the kanji and showed it to him. His face turned dark for a second, before he smothered the reaction.

“So… yeah. The other kids inevitably joined in and the teachers didn’t care. He backed off in junior high, if only because he couldn’t risk anything showing up on his record. The others… they got smart about it instead.” Izuku stopped for a moment. It wasn’t like he could really talk about what happened over the last year. “That covers it. I think.”

Aizawa-sensei gave him a flat look. Or, flatter than his normal look. Somehow. “Anything happen recently that could have changed anything?”

Izuku pretended to look confused. He knew Aizawa-sensei was fishing for information if either Yagi-san or Recovery Girl-sensei had told him anything about them. “Well… I got a homeroom teacher that actually cared last year. He…” remember Izuku, Karasuma-sensei is the one written down as your homeroom teacher, “he was the one that got me in with Sentoki-sensei. There… at Aldera there was a bit of a status quo. The best students were in class A, and the worst in class E. Last year, class E, my class, shook things up a lot and ended the year monopolizing the top scores. It… ruffled some feathers. I don’t know how that would have affected Bakugou, though.”

Oh, that was a fun look on Aizawa-sensei’s face. He definitely wanted to say something, but also didn’t know how to do it without revealing his source. Which meant this was Yagi-san’s fault. Good to know.

“The context is… enlightening,” Aizawa-sensei finally said. “But you haven’t said anything about why you broke his arm. I know you wouldn’t do that for no reason.”

Izuku squirmed in his seat. “I told you before. I don’t have a good excuse for that.”

“An explanation is not an excuse. I’m not asking for excuses.”

“Right, uh… he’s been… better? I think? We’d at least managed to ignore each other until then. Once we started fighting, though, it was right back to where we started. He… I don’t know. He was saying some stuff and then he called me Deku again and I just… snapped. After everything else that happened today, I didn’t really have it in me to be rational about it anymore.”

“And how do you feel right now?”

“Uh, fine?”

Aizawa-sensei ducked his chin into his scarf and thought for a moment. “Do you think you would be okay attending your after-school class?”

“I guess? It kinda depends on what we’re doing.”

“It’s only the first day. It’ll just be introductory material.” Aizawa-sensei sighed. “Fine. I still need to talk to Bakugou-kun and Nedzu-san to figure out what to do with all of this. For now, go get changed, take a walk, do whatever you want until class starts. We’ll talk about this again later.”

“Yes, Aizawa-sensei.” Izuku stood and bowed, recognizing his signal to leave. It had been a long day, and he didn’t really want to deal with… that mess anymore. At least explosives were something he knew, considering Takebayashi-kun had, somewhat reluctantly, allowed Izuku to study alongside him once he had been designated their explosives expert.

* * *

Shouta groaned when the door closed behind Midoriya-kun. Why did he have to be the one to wind up with these two kids? He wanted to just separate them, but Midoriya-kun specifically needed Shouta’s help if he wanted to go pro, and from the sound of it, being moved to class 1-B could be worse for Bakugou-kun’s development emotionally than doing nothing. And they would need to confront this eventually anyway…

Not now. Right now, he needed to go talk to Bakugou-kun about his side of the story, then go find Nedzu-san.

Returning to Shuzenji-san’s office, Shouta was pleased to find Bakugou still waiting there. He looked somewhat stressed and uncomfortable, but he probably knew exactly what Izuku had been saying to Shouta, so that wasn’t exactly surprising.

“Do you want to talk here, or somewhere else?” he asked, not bothering to sit down just yet. He’d calmed down since this incident started, but even he had to admit that he was a little pissed by what he’d learned about who was theoretically his best student.

Bakugou-kun sent a sideways glance towards Shuzenji-san.

“Anything you say here will stay here,” Shuzenji-san said, not even glancing up from her paperwork.

Bakugou-kun still looked hesitant. “Somewhere else,” he finally answered.

Shouta nodded and guided him back to the same room he’d talked to Midoriya-kun in.

“How much did he tell you?” Bakugou-kun asked, standing awkwardly by the door.

“I’d rather hear what you have to say.”

Bakugou-kun scowled. After a moment of strained silence resting between them, his shoulders fell, and he trudged to the stool Midoriya-kun had been sitting in just minutes before. “He… Whatever he said was probably true. He might be a self-sacrificial moron, but he’s grown a backbone since we were kids. He surprised me today.”

“Because he fought back?”

Bakugou-kun nodded. “In a few ways. I really should have been expecting that.” He snorted to himself. “He changed sometime last year. I don’t know when it was, or what happened, but he’s not taking any shit anymore.”

That was interesting. Shouta didn’t think he could imagine Midoriya-kun putting up with anything. He was an incredibly stubborn boy that knew what he wanted and was more than willing to work for it. “If what he said was true, why shouldn’t I expel you? And none of that ‘I’ve worked too hard for this’ crap. Hard work means nothing if you underestimate your allies and enemies or you look down on those you’re supposed to protect.”

“Because I know I fucked up, and I’m working on it.”

Shouta raised an eyebrow, waiting for Bakugou-kun to elaborate.

“After some… issues last year, my parents began suggesting I see a therapist for anger management. I agreed. Kokoro-san, my therapist, and I have been… working on some other things as well, but mostly anger management.”

That was certainly a start and provided reasons for Shouta to wait and see where this went. He would certainly need to talk with this Kokoro-san. “And what happened today?”

Bakugou-kun flinched. “Like I said… he surprised me. I-I’m not used to him fighting back like that. Mix in the fact that I… I’m still working on everything, and… I fell on old habits.”

“Those habits being?”

“Insulting him. Belittling him.”

“Calling him a deku?” That certainly got a reaction. “I’m guessing your therapist has had a few things to say about that one.”

“Not yet,” said Bakugou, “but I can tell he wants to. Probably thinks he needs to deal with some other shit first or something stupid like that.”

Shouta hummed. “He might be right, but I’m guessing you already know what he’d want to say.”

“Probably.”

“I’m going to offer my own advice then. If you want anything resembling a healthy relationship with Midoriya-kun, _use his name._ Even now, in this conversation with me, you’ve never once used his name. You haven’t even used that demeaning nickname for him, either, which is good. I’m pretty sure you know what would happen if you did, now that I know what it means.”

Bakugou-kun was starting to shake. Shouta figured he’d pushed the kid far enough. “You can go, now. I still need to talk with Nedzu-san, and likely both of your parents. When we have this figured out, I’ll talk to each of you individually about it. Don’t think Midoriya-kun will be getting off lightly just because of your history either, breaking a classmate’s arm in a sparring match is unacceptable.”

Bakugou-kun gave a sharp, tight nod and rose stiffly to his feet. He bowed silently and left quickly.

Shouta once again buried his head in his hands. These two… he was going to need more coffee for this. The only question was if he got the coffee before or after he went to talk to Nedzu-san.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bakugou, why can't you be easier to write?


End file.
